The LIFE CLEANSED (2013-2016) project will demonstrate, evaluate and disseminate an innovative, integrated, multi-sector approach for the smart and sustainable management of polluted dredged river sediments. Polluted sediments will be dredged, transformed from a contaminated waste into valuable material via a specific decontamination treatment, and subsequently used.

EcoSolar envisions an integrated value chain to manufacture and implement solar panels in the most ecologic way by maximising resource efficiency, taking into account reuse of materials during production and repurposing solar panel components at end of life stage. EcoSolar will demonstrate that during the lifetime of a solar electricity producing field, individual panels can be monitored, allowing to identify defaulting panels at an early stage, replacing or repairing them and thus to increase the overall energy yield.

Ecolife (2013-2016) intends to transfer the knowledge and experience gained in professional communication on risk perception and prevention to communication on climate change. It will launch a long-term, sustainable, information and communication campaign to reach the following goals:

·Improved population awareness about climate change;

·Reduction of CO2 emissions through the adoption, by the target audience, of a new and environmentally-friendly lifestyle;

·Enhanced effectiveness of the project’s communication approach by extending it to other environmental communicationoperators.

Ecotic has the main objective to raise awareness about the environmental issues surrounding the manufacture and use of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), the handling of WEEE and its treatment and recovery (including reuse and recycling). The project also aims to promote green energy with a special emphasis on households and school children in Romania. The project aims to engage all the relevant project stakeholders in a joint effort to tackle the problem of WEEE at national, regional and local level.

The EMaRES (2013-2016) project focuses on the problem of waste management in those areas that have no incineration facilities, and where residual waste is managed mainly by mechanical biological treatment (MBT) and landfill. The aim is to demonstrate the potential to increase material recycling and recovery, while reducing landfill needs through innovative concepts in waste collection, mechanical sorting, biological treatment and landfill management.

Life Ewas project aims to foster innovation in waste management by demonstrating the potential of new information technologies to optimise current EU waste management practices and to establish a way forward for the adoption of a standard and more sustainable model. The project will also study the current waste management systems of the regions involved in order to identify ways of making them more sustainable waste.

The LIFE FIBERS (2013-2016) project aims to improve knowledge on the treatment of asbestos-bearing waste through actions such as manufacturing and implementing two prototype ovens (which will be up-scaled to medium and then to pre-industrial scale), dedicated to inerting asbestos-bearing waste by a technique known as ‘self-propagating high temperature synthesis’ (SHS); verifying the extent of transformation of fibrous waste into newborn minerals, with changed chemistry and behaviour from asbestos; optimising the quality (i.e. purity) and the amounts (i.e. the stoichiometry) of chemical reagents to be adopted for the industrial extension, as a part of a move towards green and sustainable industrial processes, etc.

The successful completion of the FineSol project would lift the ultra-miniaturisation/functionality road block and also enable reduction in raw material usage, reduction in WEEE, reduction in pollution and associated health costs and also a major reduction in EU energy demand with all its indirect benefits for environment and society.

FLAT to FLAT (2013-2017) aims to develop and validate an innovative method for recycling and up-cycling glass and other waste materials in the production of flat glass.This aim will be achieved through an innovative grinding technology that allows the content of recycled materials of the final flat glass to be raised to 25%, and the use of up to 55% of glass cullet.

“FUSIONS (Food Use for Social Innovation by Optimising waste prevention Strategies) will contribute to achieving a Resource Efficient Europe by significantly reducing food waste. It will achieve this through a comprehensive and experienced European partnership covering all key actors across the food supply chain, including regulatory, business, NGOs and knowledge institutes, all with strong links to consumer organisations.

The approach to waste management as well as the common values of the European Union and the Mediterranean Partner Countries are based on three principles: waste prevention, recycling and re-use, improvement of final disposal and waste monitoring. The success of the strategy is highly dependent on the effective implementation of unified actions at Mediterranean level creating opportunities to exchange best practices, share knowledge and raise awareness on the importance of waste recycling. In addition the move towards long-term environmental sustainability shall also be supported by legislative frameworks enforcing waste recycling.

These are the aims of GMI (2013-2015), which represents a pioneer effort of six Mediterranean countries to develop a cross-border incentive based recycling program and communication campaign targeting 200 schools and universities.

Infocycle aims at addressing the limited available quantity of WEEE in the Ipirus and Thessaly regions. Actions will aim at increasing the quality of processes by the partners of the existing collective recycling scheme, thus minimising its environmental footprint. Complementary, several actions are foreseen to increase environmental awareness and local culture regarding the risks of maltreating WEEE.

The main goal of Know Waste is to promote waste reduction, reuse and recycling (RRR) in Cyprus, through an awareness raising campaign based on an integrated communication strategy aiming to inform, educate and motivate.

The project aims to bring about notable changes in perceptions, awareness and habits of the general public and targeted groups.

LANDCARE MED (2013-2015) project aims to provide the necessary tools and methodology for local authorities (i.e. rural villages) in order to develop integrated strategies and policies in the field of rural waste management. In particular, the actors involved in the project will implement a system where any kind of residual in livestock and agriculture related activities has a reasonable and efficient way of reusing. This objective will be achieved through a small-scale rural waste management approach and the exploitation of innovative technologies, which both allow to enhance the role of the farmer from source of the problem to key factor of its solution by changing its role from passive actor to active stakeholder.

LIFE+ISR project aims to demonstrate the environmental and economic benefits of two highly innovative sludge pre-treatment technologies that substantially reduce waste (i.e. sludge) production at municipal WWTPs. Both complementary technologies realise substantial sludge reduction, but are targeted at different types of WWTPs and situations. Thermocrack is an innovative technology based on thermal pre-treatment of sludge, which results in sludge and chemical reductions and enhanced biogas production. This technology will be implemented in the facilities of the Kralingseveer WWTP, which already has a digester. Optigest is a novel technology for sludge digestion, in which the hydraulic retention time and solids retention time are separated. Implementing Optigest results in sludge reduction, increased sludge volume handling capacity and enhanced biogas production. This technology will be tested in the facilities of the Tollebeek WWTP.

The general objective of LifeCIP (2013-2016) is to help SMEs in France, Belgium, Portugal and Spain to reduce the environmental impacts of their products and services in the building/construction, energy equipment and waste management sectors through the application of lifecycle approaches – including LCA, ecodesign and environmental labelling. This will enhance resource efficiency and reduce environmental emissions relating to the products and services (i.e. the extraction and treatment of raw-material, manufacture, distribution, and use and disposal of the product or service - including all intervening transport steps).

MED-3R (2012-2015) suggests innovation in approaches and services in order to meet with the specific needs of the beneficiary territories experiencing great difficulties in defining or implementing efficient and sustainable waste management plans. The developement of management plans will be innovative and adapted as it results from a unique initiative between complementary stakeholders of the territory, through the MED-3R strategic plateform.

The Life Memory project aims to demonstrate (at an industrial prototype scale) an anaerobic technology, using the innovative Submerged Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor (SAnMBR) technology, as an alternative to traditional urban wastewater treatment. The SAnMBR technology combines anaerobic digestion and membrane technology, allowing for the treatment of urban wastewater at ambient temperatures. Anaerobic digestion allows the conversion of the organic matter into a biogas flow (composed mainly by CH4 and CO2) that can be used at the WWTP to generate heat energy and electric power. On the other hand membrane filtration allows the sludge retention time (SRT) to be increased by 100% without increasing the reactor volume – thus in turn permitting anaerobic processes to be used for low-loaded wastewaters. Low growth rate of anaerobic bacteria coupled to longer sludge retention time reduces sludge production, so that there is less residual waste to be disposed of and fewer emissions.

Societal challenges, RTD and innovation offer opportunities to rejuvenate and transform the resource intensive chemical and process industries into eco-efficient high-tech solution providers, by switching to bio-based feedstock, improving efficiency of processes, by recycling waste materials and by looking at industry as an integrated system (industrial symbiosis). Objective of the Chemicals Regions for Resource Efficiency project (2012-2015) is to overcome European fragmentation of ambitious and innovative regions, to improve triple helix collaboration within and between some of the most process intensive European regions.

The RE-PURPOSE LIFE project was developed in response to the flagship initiative “A resource-efficient Europe” under the EU 2020 strategy, and translates its commitments into a transferable approach for establishing locally-developed, enterprise-led solutions for re-use in social housing contexts. The project aims to support community groups who wish to create their own social enterprises for turning redundant spaces into re-use hubs for the collection, storage and repair of bulky re-use items, which provide an alternative to illegal dumping. This will be complemented by an in-depth engagement and behaviour-change programme to tackle the root causes of illegal dumping and encourage positive environmental action.

The LIFE REBus (2013-2016) project will demonstrate how businesses and their supply chains can implement resource efficient business models. It will focus on four key markets: electrical and electronic products; clothing; furniture; and construction products. These have a total annual value of more than €350 billion across the EU.

A) Improve European supply of the critical Rare Earth Elements Y, Nd, Tb and Dy
B) Strengthen SME positions in REE production and recovery value chain
C) Innovate and research two different routes for hydro/pyro metallurgical recovery of REEs: as Rare Earth Oxides (REO) or Rare Earth Oxy-Carbides (REOC) in electrolytic reduction
D) Demonstrate and compare viability and potential for these routes on two different types of deposited industrial wastes:
1. tailings from the iron ore industry (high volume but low concentration of REE)
2. magnetic waste material from the WEEE recycling industry (low volume but high concentration REE)

The main objective of Rewaco is to demonstrate a new, more efficient and cost-effective waste collection system - reversed waste collection - in three different neighbourhoods of Arnhem. By offering a series of incentives to the local population, the reversed waste collection system is designed to encourage people to separate valuable household waste.

The generation of organic solid waste is rising significantly everywhere in the Mediterranean region due to population’s increase and development of industrial and agricultural sectors.This situation causes growing pressure on groundwater, soil and air and calls for strategies allowing for sound waste management systems.

In addition to the lack in some Mediterranean countries of separate collection of municipal solid waste, the implementation of integrated waste management plans at local level is still undermined by the high costs of transport and treatment. In this framework, SCOW (2013-2015) focuses on the collection of organic waste in tourist areas with a view to valorizing biowaste as compost for sustainable agriculture practices.

The SMILE (2013-2016) project’s main aim focuses on reducing and recovering marine litter in coastal areas. This will be achieved through the development of governance processes for implementing an innovative ‘catching mechanism’ for marine litter in a pilot area. All work will contribute to the region’s ICZM operations.

LIFE-MED, Medical Equipment Discarded – A new integrate system to reduce waste by medical equipment and medical WEEE. MED project deals with the management of discarded medical equipment and devices. The project addresses primarily the environmental problem of sustainable waste and natural management. It supports waste prevention programmes and measures to promote the application of the waste hierarchy.

REFRESH is an EU research project taking action against food waste. 26 partners from 12 European countries and China work towards the project’s goal to contribute towards the objectives of reducing food waste across Europe by 30% by 2025, reducing waste management costs, and maximizing the value from un-avoidable food waste and packaging materials.

The 3xEnvironment project consists of three campaigns integrating the SMEs sector and their surroundings in an effort to protect the environment. Its primary goal is to support the entrepreneurs in the implementation of some changes to make their enterprises pro-ecological. This will be possible due to reducing use of energy, water, paper supplies as well as raw materials. They are encouraged to save money, while protecting the environment. This project also aims to increase SMEs employees’ awareness in the topics of ecology and the efficient use of resources.

The SRNEXT_4_LIFE (2013-2016) project would demonstrate an integrated recycling solution for automotive and WEEE shredder residue. Using an innovative separation process, this solution would have been able to separate and increase the recycling efficiency of SR waste streams to 97%, thus surpassing the 95% objective fixed by the European Union’s ELV legislation. The process would be demonstrated in a first full-scale application.

In many cases energy, water and resources contained in wastewater may have significant value if recovered. Therefore, the EU is currently confronted with a paradigm shift from wastewater treatment to resource recovery. To facilitate this shift, the SuPER-W European Joint Doctorate programme trains early-stage researchers (ESRs) in developing technologies for water, energy, nutrient and metal reuse, and bioproduction from (waste)water.

Waste on a Diet aims to deploy solutions to facilitate full implementation of the pay-as-you-throw scheme. It aims to address the particular challenges of collective housing and rural areas to reduce quantities of waste and increase local treatment and recycling of organic waste.